Greene County voices opposition to Belleayre ski center expansion

CATSKILL, N.Y. -- Greene County lawmakers are voicing opposition to the proposed $74 million expansion of the state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in neighboring Ulster County.

Legislature Chairman Wayne Speenburgh announced during a meeting Wednesday that he was submitting a letter to the state Department of Environmental Conservation in opposition to plans that would pump millions of taxpayer dollars into the expansion of Belleayre. He said the letter was being sent on behalf of the entire Legislature.

Speenburgh, R-Coxsackie, said public money should not be invested in a state-owned facility that competes with private ski center such as Hunter and Windham mountains in Greene County.

In January 2008, the Greene County Legislature called on the state to perform additional reviews of expansions planned for Belleayre. A few months later, Speenburgh called on the state comptroller to audit the state-owned facility, which critics had argued was using government subsidies to siphon business away from the ski centers in Greene. The comptroller denied that request.

In response to the audit request, then-Ulster County Legislature Chairman David Donaldson, D-Kingston, called on Ulster residents to boycott off-season events at Hunter and Windham.

Tensions between Ulster and Greene eventually abated when the two counties agreed to work together to promote skiing in the region.

On Wednesday, Speenburgh said Greene is not opposed to Ulster County but does not like unfair competition to Greene's ski resorts.

Under the Bellearye expansion plan, the ski center, which is in the Ulster County town of Shandaken and is operated by the Olympic Regional Development Authority, would get another 5.3 miles of ski trails on the site's west side and enough extra chair lifts, lodge space and parking facilities to handle 9,000 skiers per day, roughly twice what Belleayre can handle now.

"Tourism is a major source of economic activity in Greene County, and our two privately owned and operated ski resorts that have had to use private capital to maintain and expand over the years simply cannot compete with the benefits provided to a state-run facility such as Belleayre," Speenburgh wrote in the letter. "Should this expansion occur, the additional skier visits to Belleayre will cannibalize the skier visits of the other operating ski facilities in the state and especially the Capital Region." Skiing is the primary source of visitor spending in Greene County during the winter, and the lodging, retail and personal services in the county businesses are dependent on those visitors, he said.

Speenburgh also noted that because Belleayre is a state-owned facility, it does not have to go through the same permitting processes as private industries, which gives it an advantage over ski centers like Hunter and Windham.

Greene County Legislators Larry Gardner, D-Hunter, and James Hitchcock, R-Maplecrest, agreed the proposed Belleayre expansion is unfair to Greene and its ski centers.

Hitchcock said what he finds disturbing is that after Tropical Storm Irene damaged parts of Greene County in 2011, state officials told the county and its communities that they would help them get back in business. He said either one hand of state government does not know what the other is doing, or someone was talking out of both sides of their mouth.

Developer Dean Gitter, whose Crossroads Ventures LLC has proposed building the Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park next to the Shandaken ski center, said on Thursday that he was disappointed by Greene County's stance.

"The owners of all three of the private Catskill ski areas (Windham, Hunter and Plattekill Mountain in Delaware County) still persist in their mistaken belief that any improvements made to the skiing experience at Belleayre will somehow steal customers from their facilities," Gitter said in a prepared statement. "There appears to be no thought whatsoever that an increase in the visitation to Belleayre could only serve to increase the viability of Catskill skiing in the minds of the skiing public and, thus, contribute to their increased appeal."

The state's plan to expand the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center includes connecting it to Gitter's $365 million resort with ski-in/ski-out opportunities.

Written comments about proposed Belleayre expansion are being accepted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation through July 24. Comments can be emailed to belleayre@gw.dec.state.ny.us or mailed to Daniel Whitehead, Region 3 Environmental Permit Administrator, NYSDEC, 21 S. Putt Corners Road, New Paltz, N.Y. 12561.